Sixers vs Raps Round 2 Discussion

[Mik317]

that game 3 is what makes all of this suck more.

that was the team clicking on all cylinders yo. That was the idea of this core....I honestly would be less butt mad right now if we only won game 2 and just got put out to pasture lol.

dat game doe man. that is going to be my white whale lol

[PhillyPhilly]

For all those moaning about our roster what do you say about Boston? They traded away a lot for Kyrie only for him to get injured last season and now fail In these playoffs. Now he looks like leaving and that whole trade looks like a disaster. Then you have the Gordon situation, a guy who's being paid big money and looks a shell of himself after the injury. Morris and Rozier could well be leaving too. And yall think we've got problems? The Raps are also likely to lose Kawhi and where would they be without him? This team has won 15 out of 20 games, I repeat, 15 out of 20 games. And many of these games have been with Joel having issues. So let's not go overboard guys. A better coach and a few different pieces can vastly improve this team next year.

We're allowed to dislike the current state and also agree that Boston is in a bad situation. I don't understand why one is connected with the other. They are a victim of unfortunate circumstances (Hayward's horrific injury), bad decision making (draft Jaylen Brown over Jamal Murray), and inaction (not trading Terry Rozier at the height of his value). They have had the opportunity to be a powerhouse and blew it.

That said, they still have decent assets to trade for someone good (like Anthony Davis apparently), or they can blow it up and try to rebuild with Tatum, Brown, Griz pick, Sac pick, etc. If we strike out on Butler and Harris, we're going to be in an interesting situation this summer. Not much left in the cupboard.

The issue is people want to tear the whole thing down instead of looking at the good aspects of the team and wanting to address the weak parts. It's just far too reactionary imo. Yes I hate that Ben can't shoot, but folks are acting like it's impossible that he can eventually get a jumper, and folks are already giving up on Joel who is still developing his game too. We've just got to be more patient.

[FlyingArrow]

The issue is people want to tear the whole thing down instead of looking at the good aspects of the team and wanting to address the weak parts. It's just far too reactionary imo. Yes I hate that Ben can't shoot, but folks are acting like it's impossible that he can eventually get a jumper, and folks are already giving up on Joel who is still developing his game too. We've just got to be more patient.

Yep. Look around the league. There are 8 teams still playing. We're one of them. Would we be one of them without Butler? Without Tobias? Hindsight is 20/20, but looking forward how do we get better by letting Tobias and Butler walk? Pretend an all-star is going to sign with us instead of one of the many other teams with max space?

I think we know what we have with Tobias and Butler. Tobias is a great 3rd option who can have an occasional game where he leads the team in scoring. He might not ever make an all-star team but he probably would have if he didn't come to a team where he's the 3rd or 4th option. Butler is great and will decline slowly starting probably in year 2 or 3 of his contract if he re-signs with us.

Neither are going to make us a favorite to win it all. We know what Joel and Ben are right now. Either one could still take another leap forward. Ben by learning to shoot, or Joel by raising his game to another level and becoming a historically good big man. If either one of those happen, we are in the mix for a title every season. If they both happen, we're the favorites. But we still need Jimmy and Tobias (or something equivalent). If they walk, we may not find equivalent production anywhere.

[Negrodamus]

For all those moaning about our roster what do you say about Boston? They traded away a lot for Kyrie only for him to get injured last season and now fail In these playoffs. Now he looks like leaving and that whole trade looks like a disaster. Then you have the Gordon situation, a guy who's being paid big money and looks a shell of himself after the injury. Morris and Rozier could well be leaving too. And yall think we've got problems? The Raps are also likely to lose Kawhi and where would they be without him? This team has won 15 out of 20 games, I repeat, 15 out of 20 games. And many of these games have been with Joel having issues. So let's not go overboard guys. A better coach and a few different pieces can vastly improve this team next year.

We're allowed to dislike the current state and also agree that Boston is in a bad situation. I don't understand why one is connected with the other. They are a victim of unfortunate circumstances (Hayward's horrific injury), bad decision making (draft Jaylen Brown over Jamal Murray), and inaction (not trading Terry Rozier at the height of his value). They have had the opportunity to be a powerhouse and blew it.

That said, they still have decent assets to trade for someone good (like Anthony Davis apparently), or they can blow it up and try to rebuild with Tatum, Brown, Griz pick, Sac pick, etc. If we strike out on Butler and Harris, we're going to be in an interesting situation this summer. Not much left in the cupboard.

The issue is people want to tear the whole thing down instead of looking at the good aspects of the team and wanting to address the weak parts. It's just far too reactionary imo. Yes I hate that Ben can't shoot, but folks are acting like it's impossible that he can eventually get a jumper, and folks are already giving up on Joel who is still developing his game too. We've just got to be more patient.

I'm not an advocate for tearing it down, but if there's one thing I've learned from following the NBA, it's that if there is a particular skill that is simply not there, the player rarely picks it up. It'll have to be an abnormal occurrence for Ben to become a passable spot-up shooter in his career. It has always been my thought process that whatever team drafted Ben should punt on the idea of him becoming a shooter and try to put 4 shooters around him at all times. This is the Simmons-Embiid conundrum moving forward. Joel is a threat from three, but we don't want him shooting from there as much as he has. I don't expect Simmons to ever approach Embiid's level of shooting from outside and that's baseline what he needs to be for this pairing to work. Add on Butler being an OK 3 pt shooter and we have this confusing mishmash of talent that doesn't always work on offense.

[PhilasFinest]

So who do we think becomes the coach in the off-season?

[Holla]

Y'all are hating wayyyy too much on your players, Ben and Joel are a monster tandem to have for the next 5+ years. Let Ben eventually develop a mid range than go to 3's and Embiid is a monster already. Wait in a couple years and see how they are.

Predicament is the free agency too with Butler and Tobias. Oh and any team is blessed with JJ He's been killing us. But I like philly's system and players rn and it's a good problem to have for the FO

[Bum Adebayo]

Y'all are hating wayyyy too much on your players, Ben and Joel are a monster tandem to have for the next 5+ years. Let Ben eventually develop a mid range than go to 3's and Embiid is a monster already. Wait in a couple years and see how they are.

Predicament is the free agency too with Butler and Tobias. Oh and any team is blessed with JJ He's been killing us. But I like philly's system and players rn and it's a good problem to have for the FO

Monster tandem? not really, the fit is terrible, more like monster talents if anything.

[XDevilBoiX]

that game 3 is what makes all of this suck more.

that was the team clicking on all cylinders yo. That was the idea of this core....I honestly would be less butt mad right now if we only won game 2 and just got put out to pasture lol.

dat game doe man. that is going to be my white whale lol

I hear u there. Then game 4 came down to the wire and Sixers Sixered there again. Went like 5-6 min without a dam fg and missing easy foul shots. Seems like good things end quick with this team but then bad things carry out long as hell

[Arsenal]

that game 3 is what makes all of this suck more.

that was the team clicking on all cylinders yo. That was the idea of this core....I honestly would be less butt mad right now if we only won game 2 and just got put out to pasture lol.

dat game doe man. that is going to be my white whale lol

I hear u there. Then game 4 came down to the wire and Sixers Sixered there again. Went like 5-6 min without a dam fg and missing easy foul shots. Seems like good things end quick with this team but then bad things carry out long as hell

We blew this series with the flat out choke job at the end of Game 4. It was eerily reminiscent of multiple games choked away against Boston last year.

[the_process]

[76ciology]

We won it for Jimmy.

G5 act like a leader keeping everyone’s morale up. G6 he lead the attack. The rest is history.

[76ciology]

After putting embiid on siakam starting game 2, siakam is shooting 6/27 from 3s

[XDevilBoiX]

After putting embiid on siakam starting game 2, siakam is shooting 6/27 from 3s

Most of them are open too lol. Seems like Embiid got into his head mentality

[Ferry Avenue]

After putting embiid on siakam starting game 2, siakam is shooting 6/27 from 3s

Smartest coaching move of the series in my opinion. That way Embiid can stay in the lane and be a rim protector (especially against a driving Kawhi) and rebounder, as opposed to guarding Gasol at the arc.

This is a big reason why his +/- was so good last night, even though his point production was relatively meager. Toronto doesn't penetrate and score nearly as much when he's in.

[PhillyFan11]

Anybody else find it odd the ESPN headline after last nights game is “Embiid returns to form...”? and the article starts off by talking about Jo leading the Sixers to victory in a must win game. 17 points on under 40% shooting is no where near Jo’s form, if he was playing like himself this series would be over already. I guess it’s just a product of Jo’s personality/popularity, but just an odd spin on that game last night

[76ciology]

After putting embiid on siakam starting game 2, siakam is shooting 6/27 from 3s

Smartest coaching move of the series in my opinion. That way Embiid can stay in the lane and be a rim protector (especially against a driving Kawhi) and rebounder, as opposed to guarding Gasol at the arc.

This is a big reason why his +/- was so good last night, even though his point production was relatively meager. Toronto doesn't penetrate and score nearly as much when he's in.

Yeah proud to say i also recommended the same thing after g1.

Biid was able to patrol the paint because siakam is struggling right now.

[76ciology]

Anybody else find it odd the ESPN headline after last nights game is “Embiid returns to form...”? and the article starts off by talking about Jo leading the Sixers to victory in a must win game. 17 points on under 40% shooting is no where near Jo’s form, if he was playing like himself this series would be over already. I guess it’s just a product of Jo’s personality/popularity, but just an odd spin on that game last night

Because maybe returns to form may mean being healthy

[Ferry Avenue]

Anybody else find it odd the ESPN headline after last nights game is “Embiid returns to form...”? and the article starts off by talking about Jo leading the Sixers to victory in a must win game. 17 points on under 40% shooting is no where near Jo’s form, if he was playing like himself this series would be over already. I guess it’s just a product of Jo’s personality/popularity, but just an odd spin on that game last night

No doubt. I thought he was basically 70-80%, after being more like 40-50% in the previous game. There's still 20-30% remaining to achieve his "form," and that'll be necessary to have in game seven in my opinion.

[Negrodamus]

I thought Embiid was pretty dominant on defense. Struggled a bit offensively, but that wasn't really needed from him to be honest.

[hags]

would love to have seen 35 points from Joel, but IMO +40 = return to form. Offense and Defense were SO much better when he was out there. Huge impact.